


Of Bad Dreams and Particle Accelerators

by ceealaina



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-18
Updated: 2013-05-18
Packaged: 2017-12-12 04:39:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/807351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceealaina/pseuds/ceealaina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony can't sleep, and Bruce helps out. Tony/Bruce if you squint.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Bad Dreams and Particle Accelerators

Bruce had been asleep when something tickled at the back of his mind, telling him something was off. Still hazy, he rolled over. He blinked awake and it was only years of practice that kept his heart rate steady as he was met with Tony, sitting cross-legged on the bed beside him and grinning like a loon. Tony was clearly expecting some sort of response, and he pouted in disappointment when Bruce merely blinked blandly back at him. "Good morning, Tony," he said, like waking up to find the billionaire in his bed was an everyday occurrence. "What can I do for you?"

Tony glared at him a moment. “You’re no fun at all,” he grumbled, before tossing a tablet at Bruce, narrowly missing his head. “You have five minutes to memorize this before it self destructs,” he told him cheerfully, and Bruce hoped he was kidding but he could never really tell with Tony. He looked over the charts and graphs as Tony bounced off the bed, wandering around the room and picking up the few little kick knacks that Bruce had accumulated since arriving in New York. 

Bruce looked over the tablet for a couple minutes before looking up at Tony. “So what exactly do you want me to do with this?” he asked.

“I need your help!” Tony said, turning around to look at him before going back to examining a little statue that Bruce had picked up in Chinatown. “I can’t make the thing connect to the thing.”

Bruce supposed he should be a little bit frightened by the fact that had actually made sense to him, but he just shrugged it off as he rubbed at his eyes. “I know how to fix that,” he said simply, and Tony beamed at him.

“Okay then sunshine!” he all but purred, grabbing Bruce’s pen and flipping it in his fingers. “Up and at ‘em, let’s get to work. Got things to do, people to see, robots to build…”

Bruce just blinked at him as Tony kept rambling, still sitting up in bed as he scratched underneath his eyebrow. “Uh… Tony?” he interrupted finally.

“Yeah?”

“I’m naked,” he said bluntly. “Do you think you could give me a minute to maybe put on some clothes?”

“Oh, right, yeah.” Tony smiled amicably and then turned to Bruce’s bookshelf, examining the materials. Bruce figured that was as close as he was getting to privacy and, deciding it was a good thing he didn’t have much sense of modesty left when it came to nudity, Bruce slipped out of bed. It only took him a minute to tug on clean clothes and, eyeing his hair ruefully in the mirror, he put his glasses back on before turning to Tony.

“Okay,” he told him, and Tony beamed.

“Excellent!” he declared, a little bit of mad scientist slipping into his voice. “To the lab, Dr. Banner!” he added, grabbing Bruce’s wrist and tugging him off down the hall. Bruce couldn’t help hoping that there were muffins in the lab this time.

There were muffins, but Bruce didn’t have a chance to eat. They delved right into their experiments, and before he knew it, it was dark out. Bruce noticed this at the same moment that he glanced over at Tony and saw the other man rubbing at his eyes, his face pale and a little drawn as he blinked at his soldering iron. Bruce frowned.

“Tony?” he asked, waiting for a response and arching a brow when he didn’t get one. “Tony?” he said again. “Tony!”

Tony jumped, looking over at Bruce. “Hey! Yes! What!” he blurted out before apparently remembering Bruce was there. “What’s up, Jolly Green?”

Bruce just shook his head, chuckling a little. “Did you sleep last night?”

“I… No,” Tony admitted, blinking again at his soldering iron like it was its fault. “Guess not.”

Bruce rolled his eyes, taking Tony’s elbow and gently setting his tools down. “Okay, come on. You need some sleep before Miss Potts kills me.”

“Pepper would never kill you,” Tony protested, digging his heels in mostly out of habit. “She says you’re good for me.”

Tony kept rambling on about Pepper and Bruce, which somehow led to Thor, and then Steve, and then something about Paris. Bruce wasn’t even listening, just nodding along and humming in agreement as he steered Tony down the hall and to the elevators. Despite their conversation, Tony didn’t seem to know where they were going and he blinked when he found himself in the penthouse.

“What’re we doing here?”

Bruce rolled his eyes again. “Bed, Tony. You’re exhausted.”

He was grinning, but to his surprise Tony shook his head. “No,” he said, and for half a second there was a trace of panic across his face. “Can’t go to bed.”

Bruce just glared at the other man. "Tony, no. You need to sleep. No more experiments, you're done for the night." He grinned at him like he was a little boy. "Now go get ready for bed."

Tony gave him a pained look, ignoring his request and instead heading for the bar and pouring himself two fingers of scotch. He took a big swallow, rubbing at his eyes. "No, I mean I can't," he explained, sighing heavily. "I can't sleep."

Bruce frowned, watching Tony carefully as he moved away from the bar, slumping down on his couch and scrubbing a hand over his face. "What, you mean you physically..."

"I have nightmares," Tony admitted bluntly. "Ever since... I can't sleep," he repeated. "It's not happening, and when it does, it's worse than being awake."

Bruce considered this a moment. "Well," he said, taking a seat beside tony. "Dreams are just thoughts trapped in your subconscious. And nightmares are what happens when those thoughts are negative, and weighing on you."

Tony gave him a dirty look, although he was smiling faintly. "Yes, thank you doctor. I actually was aware of that."

Bruce rolled his eyes, arching a brow at Tony. "So all you have to do is distract your subconscious. Think of other thinks before you fall asleep, so your mind can't focus on the bad."

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Tony asked sarcastically. "I've tried that. I can't think of other things. It just... Takes over."

"Okay." Bruce nodded, thinking this over. "So what makes you happy? What are the good things in your life, Mr. Stark?" he asked, putting on his best Freudian accent.

Tony rolled his eyes, but played along. "Pepper mostly, but she's in Malibu most of the time lately. You, all the avengers really... Science..."

"Science, huh?" Bruce grinned. "So tell me about the time you build a particle accelerator in your basement."

Tony gave him a look. "I know what you're doing, and it's not going to work," he told him flatly. Bruce just blinked back at him, and despite his protests, Tony leaned back against the couch and started talking.

Bruce wasn't sure how long they talked for, although the sky was getting steadily darker outside the panoramic windows. He could see Tony getting more and more tired as Bruce supplied him with science related questions and hypotheses, Tony's words getting draggy and slurred, and his eyes getting heavier. Bruce didn't let up, letting Tony talk himself into a coma. Eventually Tony had stretched out so he was lying down the length of the couch, his head almost in Bruce's lap as his eyes slipped closed. He was still talking, although he was making less and less sense, and it was all Bruce could do not to ruffle his hair.

"I know what you're doing," Tony mumbled again, his breathing slowly evening out. "It's not gonna work."

Two seconds later he was asleep.

Bruce's plan had been to stay long enough to ensure that Tony was soundly asleep and not in the throes of another nightmare before leaving him be and heading off to his own room for a good night's sleep. What he wasn't planning on was falling asleep himself.

The next thing he knew, sun was shining through the window and he was blinking awake to find himself also stretched out over the couch, his head brushing Tony's. He sat up, rubbing his eyes and cursing the crick in his neck before elbowing Tony awake as well.

"Huh what whassit?" Tony mumbled, sitting up and looking around wildly. A second later he relaxed and, still looking groggy, he blinked at the window. "What time is it?"

Bruce shrugged. "Morning sometime. I don't know. Fuck, my back hurts. You sleep okay?"  

"I did, actually," Tony admitted, looking surprised before a slow smile crossed his face. "Check it out, Doc! You cured me."

  Bruce smiled wryly. "I'll alert the Nobel committee. In the meantime, I'm heading off to a bed for some real sleep. That wasn't near enough, and I need a real bed." He glanced at Tony. "You should get some more too."   He was heading for the door when Tony's hand closed around his wrist and he looked at him in surprise. "Where do you think you're going?" Tony asked. "You're the secret to me sleeping, which means you're coming to bed with me, Dr. Banner."

Bruce looked at him over the top of his glasses. "That's not how it works, Tony," he pointed out, even as he let the other man drag him down the hall.

Tony shot him a blinding grin over his shoulder. "Humour me," he told him, and well, when Bruce saw the size of Tony's bed, and then actually stretched out on it and realized how soft it was, he figured why not.

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote this last Fall sometime, and it's just been sitting on my hard drive ever since. So I guess the nightmare line was me being psychic (or watching the movies too much. Probably that one, actually). Anyway, it was Avengers based, but I guess it sort of fits in Iron Man 3 too.


End file.
